


At Least You're Here Instead of Caprica

by gingercinderella



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003), Battlestar Galactica - All Media Types
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Post-Season/Series 01, Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 19:23:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13981692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingercinderella/pseuds/gingercinderella
Summary: Generally a "what if Kara and Lee could just be kind of happy for once" kind of storySet after the season 1 finale with the basic premise that Starbuck, Helo, and Sharon were able to fly back immediately.Starbuck is thrown in a cell with another mutineer while people figure out what comes next.





	At Least You're Here Instead of Caprica

 

                The raider is cramped with the three of them in there. The cylon can curl up as small as she wants, Kara doesn’t care, but she does feel bad for Helo- there’s plenty that he has to avoid as he’s holding on in the turbulence. None of the cylon ships take a second glance at them, but it’s still terrifying, praying that they’re not gunned down when they’ve come this far and are almost home. Sort of.

                “You figured out how to fly this all on your own?” He asks, his eyes still looking up and down the bloody insides that they’d never bothered to completely clean. Wasn’t the time or manpower to wash her out and make her shiny and new, not that it bothered Kara. The flight crew might hate the smell, but she’s made her peace with it.

                Kara turned to smile at him. “It was a fly or die kind of day, you know?” She asked in return, then turned back to the console. Her baby is easier to fly with the computer interface, but she’s caught for a second remembering the frakking rush using what functionality the raider had, figuring it out with nothing but adrenaline as fuel and no visibility but the eye panel. “Spooling up the FTL, jumping in five…”

 

* * *

 

                Tigh had left for his quarters and now it was just the overnight crew. Same as the day crew, there weren’t the same kind of separate shifts like there had been in the old days- Dee found herself reminiscing like this too often when it was late, and the CIC was blessedly quiet.  But the old times- you knew the people you worked with in eight hours you had with you on a shift, your schedules synced up and you got to know them and love them, the other two shifts almost foreign to her. What a luxury.

                These days, she’s lucky to have time to sleep a full night, lucky to have any down time with anyone at all. She knew nearly everyone on the ship, certainly everyone who worked in the CIC. Had to, and besides. Wasn’t that many left.

                The screen in front of her made another hypnotic sweep around, the fleet staying just where it had been. And another. On the next, her mind flickers back to earlier in the day. She’d been trying to think about the good old times, not the time the Old Man got shot. Better think about the card games she won and the card games where she had to strip down to next to nothing. The time she knew Flattop was looking at her and she’d winked at him-

                “Contact-“she says, her mouth moving and speaking before she is fully aware of it, her mind still on the now dead pilot who’d bought her drinks that night. But her own words shake her out of it and back to the screen, focusing on the signals read off by the machine. “It’s- it’s Starbuck, Sir,” she adds.  “Confirmed, it’s Starbuck in the raider.”

                She looked up to Gaeta who clenches his jaw, and she can nearly see the gears moving and the exhaustion and the desire to _not_ have to deal with this right now. “Get Tigh,” he says.

 

* * *

 

                “Galactica, this is Starbuck,” she says into the mic, just a little bit of hesitation in her voice. Chances are good this wasn’t going to go… perfect, given that she had stolen the ship and then come back with a cylon.  “Galactica, do you read?”

                There’s a beat of quiet on the mic. “Hold for instructions,” is all she gets back from Dualla. The old man and Tigh are bickering, she figures. Deciding whether to throw her in the brig immediately or not. She’s not sure she cares at this point- she did what she had to do, they can find earth now. “Maintain present course but do not land.”

“She looks beat up,” Helo murmurs, crawling forwards a little to look out the eye with her, look at her directly instead of through the dradis.

                Kara nodded. “Who isn’t, at this point?” She answers, but she had to imagine where Helo was coming from. Last he had seen of the Galactica was before the cylons attacked. She’d been cleaned up for her retirement as a museum, was as perfect as the day she’d been finished. And now, well. A few hard months had taken their toll, to the point that she looked worse than Kara had seen any Battlestar before, even the ones that were decades old and behind on maintenance.

                “Proceed to land on the port side, Starbuck,” she’s told after a few minutes.

                “Aye aye,” she answers. “I’m not the only one in the ship, just to let you know.”

 

* * *

 

                Starbuck shrugs out of the hold of the marine to her left. “I know my way to hack, thank you very much, and I ain’t stupid enough to try and run for it on a frakking Battlestar, Murph,” she mouthed off, but he didn’t grab her arm again. Things had definitely not gone according to plan- the Sharon they brought back was dragged off in chains one way, Helo running behind, and her in the other, and no one was there to answer a damn question. Not Adama, not Tigh, not even Tyrol, just the marines that she knew by name but were by no means a friendly face.

                “Lee!” She exclaims as soon as she saw him, also in the brig. In a cell next to the President. She’d been gone what, less than 24 hours? She’d expected chaos but not whatever frakking mess she’d stumbled into.

                “Kara?”

                When he tells her he landed there by putting a gun to Tigh’s head, she barks out her first laugh in weeks.

 

* * *

 

                There was one cot in the cell. Lee offers it to her, but she shakes her head. “Don’t be an idiot, Lee, we can share. You need sleep as much as I do, you look like shit.” Her eyes can’t help but drop to his hands, dried blood still there in patches he hadn’t scrubbed off yet. “Unless you’d rather not cuddle.”

                Lee’s tight smile, the shake of his head, almost killed her. Isn’t right, he’s supposed to have some retort, not quiet resignation.

                Pressed up against each other, the blanket not quite enough to cover them, their faces are close enough to share the same breath. Neither of them sleeps but Kara’s sure neither of them expected to; the room is dark, the president is quiet, and the guard is distracted.

                “It was terrible,” she murmurs, like it’s a secret between them. “Empty streets far as you could see. Worse than bodies, really. They _want_ something with Caprica, with our old home, and that’s… worse.” She shudders and Lee’s strong arms around him make her not feel steady. It’s the first time since she’d jumped to Caprica that she doesn’t feel like she might collapse then and there.

                Hours later and the silence has stretched out further, but they still haven’t slept. Haven’t said much either, but he’d shushed her and held her when she’d cried.

                “It was terrible,” he murmurs, squeezing her tighter. “I was about to be taken to the brig, and he just wanted to shake her hand- and. Two shots in the gut.” Kara doesn’t know how to squeeze him back, to do what he had. But she’s there, listening, and maybe that can be enough. “I was in cuffs and tried to hold onto him as he bled out.”

                Kara leans her forehead in closer and presses a kiss to his collarbone. “That’s good, he’d want you there.” It almost sounds like he died, like she’s saying that his last moments were spent well, and maybe it’s true. As far as they’ve been told, he could be dead or not, and they wouldn’t know at all.

                Lee’s breaths are uneven and she gives him the time to collect himself, doesn’t try to fill in the space with talk. “You should have been there,” Lee murmurs.

                “Yeah,” she agrees in an instant. She doesn’t know being there would have made it better for him or for the old man, but she doesn’t have to ask. It would have been better for them both. For all three.

 

* * *

 

                Three days.

                Tigh doesn’t come to see them.

                The guard won’t answer anything.

                The president is losing her mind in the cell next to them.

                The pair of them are locked in each other’s embrace because it’s the only place that makes sense. They’re grieving for the impending loss of the old man- someone would have let them know if he’d died, or if he’d woken up surely. So if they’re just waiting… well. It can’t be good that he hadn’t woken up yet.

                Lee mandates exercise blocks. Pushups, crunches, jumps. “Got to keep ourselves ready for when we get out,” he tells her with a smile. They’re not allowed anywhere for showers, so they smell worse and worse each day. Doesn’t keep them apart at night. Or in the day, when one sits at the foot of the bed and the other lays their head on the other’s lap, napping maybe. Or talking about something that doesn’t matter at all. Or talking about the old man, who matters so much.

                “There’s two Sharons down in the other brig,” Kara says at one point, looking up at Lee as his fingers gently comb through her hair. “The one who… um. And the one I brought back, who Helo knocked up. Can’t imagine…” she trails off and shakes her head.

                “Shh, don’t,” he answers back. He doesn’t even know where her mind is going- regret that she brought back the other Sharon? Regret at leaving? He doesn’t have to know, he can tell by the twist of her mouth that it isn’t a pleasant place. “Stay here with me, alright?”

               

* * *

 

                Helo’s been to see Tigh five times.

                It doesn’t change that she’s locked in that metal cage with a woman who looks just like her. That he has to talk through the phone, that he knows someone is always listening.

                He wants to protect her. Keep her from all this stress. She’s carrying a child, for frak’s sake, she deserves better.

                Tigh doesn’t agree.

                He gets sent away quickly every time and he expects more of the same each time he goes to see the XO but he has to keep trying.

                The sixth time, Tigh entertains him for a few extra moments, even though Helo is sure that he isn’t going to budge any more than he did the previous time. The XO picks up the phone when Helo is halfway through a sentence and straightens up.

                “Both cylons stay where they are,” he says sharply, and strides for the door, not even dismissing him.

                “Sir? Where are you going?”

                “Adama’s awake.”

                Helo runs to keep up, and Tigh doesn’t tell him to scram.

 

* * *

 

                “You better thank the gods and that the old man has a soft spot for the both of you that you’re getting out of here at all.” Tigh’s mouth is pressed into a thin line. “But the old man deserves this even if you don’t.”

                “And Kara?”

                Tigh stares at Lee as if pure force of will would be able to knock the younger man off his feet. “Starbuck’s going to see the commander, too. But you’re both in handcuffs.”

                Lee knows that part’s for the show of it, being under guard between hack and sickbay, cuffed. Make a point that Tigh has the power here and neither of them do. Lee wants to be able to hold Kara’s hand, she’s starting to tremble. So is he, honestly, and they’ve come to rely on each other. They make do by walking side by side, their arms bumping against the other’s.

                Doc Cottle looks at them in handcuffs and shakes his head. “They can’t see him like that. He’s stressed enough, and they’re not going to do anything stupid, are they?” Both of them shake their heads, would agree to anything to see the commander. “And you _stink,_ the both of you.” He waits by the curtain.

                They’re hand in hand when they’re allowed to see him. He has that weary smile on his face, and it reminds Lee of the first day cylons had attacked, and his father had thought him dead for too many hours. “You did some stupid shit, Lee,” he said, his voice missing that gravitas, sounding more weary than anything.

                Lee didn’t nod but bowed his head- he hadn’t decided if he regretted his actions or not yet. If he’d made the right choice in standing against his father. But now was far from the right moment to get into that. “How are you feeling?”

                “I feel like I got shot into the gut. Twice.”

                Lee can see Kara smile next to him, he lets himself crack a smile as well. “Shocking news there.” Kara squeezes his hand and it keeps him here, keeps him from checking out and not dealing with this, or from dwelling too deeply on his father’s earlier points. They’d talked round and round about if either of them had made the right choices and neither had convinced the other or themselves of anything yet.

                His father’s gaze turns to Kara. “You find the arrow?” He asks, and she nods, a quick and quiet _yes sir_ in answer. “You did some stupid shit, too, what am I going to do with the pair of you?”

                They don’t have a thing to say in reply, and Lee watches the old man’s gaze drop to their hands, still intertwined. He doesn’t make a comment on that, his eyes shutting again quickly. “We’re going to have a long talk, both of you, when I say so.”

                They’re handcuffed when they’re taken back to their cell. Lee counts the fact that they’re sharing a cell a gift from the gods. She sits down immediately on the cot and he takes the seat next to her, and she slumps against him immediately.

                “Hey, it’s alright,” he reassures her when she starts to tremble. “At least you’re here instead of Caprica, yeah?”

                She snorts out a laugh at the thought- stuck on Caprica?- and he feels like he’s been able to do something right at least.

 

* * *

 

                The president has lost it now and is constantly murmuring. There’s not a thing they can do- Lee talked to her, and in her moments of clarity she’d admitted it’s withdrawal from a drug. The same thing the priests use on Gemanon.

                “You were high when you told me to get the arrow?” Kara nearly screams, and Lee squeezes her hand tightly. They don’t need to do this, and besides, they can both see that she’s slipping away fast again.

                “Doesn’t matter now,” he murmurs, his arm wrapping around her and pulling her in to him, his lips against her hair. “It happened, not like we can change it.”

                Kara shakes her head, the thoughts that she hasn’t been able to piece together forming one cohesive, horrifying picture all at once. “If I hadn’t gone, Adama wouldn’t have been shot,” she whispers, her eyes shut as she tries to push away the thought but she can’t. From the details they’d heard, just bits and pieces, she could tell.

                “That’s ridiculous. She was a cylon from the beginning- “

                “She was on that mission because of me,” she cut him off, her voice quiet but sure. “I was supposed to be the one to blow up the ship, but she had to go because I chose the president over the old man. And she had to get off the raptor and they… I guess activated her, or whatever.” She looks up at him. “If _I_ _’_ _d_ been there, it wouldn’t have happened.”

                Lee scowls. “No. No, don’t think like that.”

                He shushes her, over and over, as she insists it was her fault, over and over. He isn’t _listening,_ he isn’t getting that she could have prevented this. That she should have trusted the old man over a woman who is now raving in the cell next to them.

               

* * *

 

                When Helo walks in, Kara is asleep, curled against Lee as he rubs her back gently. Lee looks up quickly- besides the guard changing and food delivered, the door doesn’t open. “Helo, I suppose?” He asks quietly, afraid to wake her. He knew everyone on this ship, and this man was in uniform and yet looks entirely unfamiliar. Only option left.

                The man nods. “Tigh has kept you three from having visitors for the last while. Commander Adama doesn’t agree as much, but isn’t sure what to do with you, either.”

                Lee sighs and shrugged. He’d committed mutiny against his father and the whole of the military on instinct. To protect a president who couldn’t function without some drug. To protect the fleet, which he doesn’t even know if that had worked. He knows next to nothing. “But he’s… awake. And talking?”

                “He’s aware, yeah. He’ll live. Takes more than… that to kill the commander.”

                Lee can hear his voice catch before he tries to talk about Sharon. Or Boomer. Or the cylon. Frak, this must be confusing for the man. “How’s she doing?”

                It’s Helo’s turn to clench his jaw. Maybe Tigh was restricting access to her, too. Or them? Two identical people, one a murderer and the other pregnant with Helo’s child.  “She gets why she’s in the brig. And says it’s worth it.”

                Lee nods and looks back down at Kara. “Thank you. For… being there, for her.” From what Kara had said, she hadn’t needed his help, but at least she wasn’t alone. No one should have to face the tomb that was their old home alone. So maybe it was for the best that Sharon had been there for Helo, before.

                “I didn’t do much. She’d killed the cylon by the time I figured out what was going on.”

                Silence fell between them for a few moments. “Why did you come here? Why were you allowed to see us?”

                “You deserved to know that he’s out of the woods.”

                “You don’t have anything to do yet, do you? We haven’t jumped since we got put in this cell, so we’re not at Kobol and we haven’t been attacked. So you just get to sit around and think about everything you’d rather not, huh? And you just wanted to do something else for once.” Lee doesn’t mean for it to come out the way it does, his voice too harsh and accusing, shaming, like he’s talking down to a nugget. But he’s so frakking angry to be in this cell after a week, no news, so frakking angry that he can’t take better care of Kara and couldn’t protect the president and the civilians from a possible military coup.

                Helo just stares right back at him and turns on his heel to leave. It’s an agreement, near about, that he was right, and a response that said he was out of line.

                If he became CAG again, somehow, they were going to have to talk about this.

                For now, however, Kara was blinking awake and Lee is just smiling down at her, telling her the good news.

 

* * *

 

                “I will return right here when I’m not working, yes sir,” he says, cleaned and dressed for work finally. At least it gave him a chance to see Kara again. She’d gotten out days ago and hadn’t been allowed back to see him. That hadn’t been said, exactly, but if she hadn’t dropped by, it wasn’t because she didn’t want to see him. Not after they’d spent every moment together for the last twelve days.

                He finds her in her rack, and immediately shakes her awake. “Sleeping on the job? Sloppy.”

                She jumps out of the bed, practically, and into his arms. “Guess they’re desperate these days,” she murmurs, and he can feel her melt against him. This is the kind of vulnerability he knows he wouldn’t and won’t get if anyone else was in the room, but they’re blessedly alone. “They’ll let any kind of criminal out at this point to do a job they need.” Well. She wouldn’t be Starbuck if she wasn’t snarky, even when they’re alone and she’s allowing him to press a kiss to her forehead.

 

* * *

 

                The landing party is a mish mash, but at least they’ve given her back the arrow. She was the one who went too damn far to get it, she’s still protective of it. The president who sent her for it isn’t allowed to be there, is still trying to sober up in the brig. But the religious part of her that Roslin had peaked is still there, hoping against all hope that the arrow will guide them home.

                The old man looks at her and Lee strangely when they stand too close, and she feels almost like she’s doing something wrong. The three of them are going to have a chat, one of these days. But the pair of them are mutineers, and they’ve got a thousand other things to worry about right now.

                “This way,” Sharon directs them. If it’s another frakking trap Kara might be ready to tackle her to the ground, but she just follows, keeping Lee close by in case it comes down needing him by her side, and keeping by the old man. She knows she has to protect him this time.


End file.
